Cherry Blossom Branch Lights in 6 Steps

What you will need:

-Brown floral tape
-Twist ties
-LED mini-individual-light strings w/ten bulbs (one for each branch).
-Branches: (I used dollar store flowers, though a real tree branch will do)
-Vase: If you use lights that need to be plugged into an outlet, you need a vase that you can cut a hole in to allow the plug through the bottom.
-Gold/Silver glitter to paint branches (optional) refer to picture.
*WARNING* Make sure the lights you have are LED, because In contrast to most light sources, LED's radiate very little heat in the form of IR that can cause damage to sensitive objects or fabrics that could cause a fire. Wasted energy is dispersed as heat through the base of the LED.


1. Choose your branch. My branches are maybe a foot long, and are really just one piece of the much longer original branch that i just tore/cut off. I used the original branch and where the blossoms were as a guide, but i had to add flowers to use all ten of the lights.

2. Pop out the centers of the flowers. I trimmed off the flowers and excess twigs from the branch so that I can spread the lights out evenly. 
*Tip* The LED lights i used were too small for the hole, so i wrapped floral tape a bunch of times around the base of the light, where it connects to the wire to make it thicker. floral tape is not really sticky. What you do is stretch it and it kind of becomes stickier- I think it's the tension that actually holds it to the surface. I then just fitted the blossom over it. I suppose you could use a dab of craft or hot glue to keep it in place if permanence is something you're after.

3. Starting from the bottom, attach the LED wires to the branch with twist ties.  Try to arrange the lights evenly along the branch with the battery pack at the bottom and the wires pulled taut.
*Tip* If you would like to diffuse the light on your LEDs you can sand the surface or put a dab of glue on it.

4. Wrap with floral stem tape beginning from the base of the blossoms down the branch.  Pull the tape taut and try not to layer it too thickly.  Cover the branch and light wires all the way down to the battery pack.

5. Repeat with all ten (or however many) lights.

6. Place it in a pretty vase! I didn't have one that worked really well, but i think i'm going to try to find something without a bottom so that i don't have to take each battery pack out and turn it on each time. i used a newspaper bag to hide the packs and stabilize the branches, but again, this wouldn't be necessary if i had the right vase.

Credits for this project:
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=aductlv8lkimkg5h00q5149t54&topic=243728.msg2692344#msg2692344

and

https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Cherry-Blossom-Lights/?ALLSTEPS